Need Some Inspiration...

[Horserider]

Help! I need some inspiration for my American Literature class. We have to write a 1/2 to 2 page (handwritten) short story and it has to follow the Dark Romanticism traits. Other than that there aren't any limitations. I'm not very good at writing short stories and I'm really not very good at writing Dark Romanticisim pieces. :huh:

Oh by the way this is due tomorrow morning so I need to do it sometime tonight...:rant:

[Horserider]

No ideas? Edgar Allen Poe (writer of "The Tell Tale Heart" and "The Raven") and Nathaniel Hawthorne ("Rappaccini's Daughter") are two writers of Dark Romanticism.

These are the traits of Dark Romanticism:


Believed that spiritual truth can be found in nature but the truth is not always good, nor harmless

Does value personal intuition and feelings over logic and reasoning

Believed because of Adam and Eve's fall there is Evil and Internal sickness in mankind (craziness, madness, twisted sickness, lunacy)

Believed that mental insanity and then physical illness can be caused by covering up one's guilt and sins.

Believed conflict between Good and Evil exists

Writers incorporated Gothic elements such as: ghosts, errie moods, old castles, big houses, hidden rooms, secret passage-ways, secrets, etc)

Writers used heavy symbolism and allusions

Writers use a plethora of negative connotative diction

I've got a couple ideas that I might try.

[Horserider]

Ok here's my short story! Now this isn't even close to being finished. I'll probably revise it a couple of times at least.

Just five doors down from our house was a mansion. It had been there for as long as anyone living could remember. It was owned by a man named Dr. Hemlig, a rather eccentric scientist. Though many believed that he might be a great scientist he was highly distrustful of people after his partner had attempted to steal his greatest work and publish it as his own. After that incident he had locked himself into his house and had never been seen since. Most people automatically avoided the mansion now. Rumor said that it was haunted by Dr. Hemlig’s ghost.

When I first moved to the town I didn’t believe the tale at first. Though it soon became evident that there was something up with the house. Strange screeches and noises that sounded like rusty gears grinding together emanated from the house during the night.
Then one year after I moved to the town my life changed forever. It was Halloween and I was trick-or-treating with my friends. We walked down the street towards my house, our bags filled to the brim with candy.

“Look it’s the old Hemlig house!” one of my friends, Thomas Mackalin, called, “Ooooh scary!”

We all laughed, but glanced nervously up at the black, dust covered windows.

“I dare you to go up and knock on the door, Aaron!” Thomas called to me.

“Fine,” I yelled back trying not to betray how afraid I was at the very thought.

I turned and stalked up the mansion. I fingered the black wrought iron gate and tried to keep my hands from shaking as the gate swung open with a loud screech. I walked slowly up the house, each of my footsteps echoing in the perfect silence. I refused to allow myself to turn and check to see if my friends were still watching me. I was afraid that if I did I might not be able to keep going.

I walked up the creaking wooden steps to the door and knocked three times. The soft knocks echoed and made me jump in my nervousness. I shook my head and tried to calm my frantically beating heart. Suddenly as I began to loose my nerve and turned to run away, the door creaked open and I felt a sudden pull to go inside.

I had time to only scan the room one time. It was a richly furnished room, brightly lit with oil lamps and candles. It was remarkably clean for a mansion that was supposedly abandoned: not a speck of dust anywhere.

“Hello Aaron,” a creaking voice said out of a dark corner, “I’ve been waiting for you.”
And Aaron was never seen again.

[FoxFireEMT]

Edgar Allen Poe ~ I loved him & his work!! i'm sorry I'm not good at creating stories!